What music server to use?


t33j4y

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I am currently trying to figure out which music server software to set up on my unRAID server.

 

I have Plex running already, serving video to Plex clients on the various appliances around the house:

  • 4 iPads
  • 2 iPhones
  • ATV4
  • 2x NUC
  • Also have a couple of laptops and a desktop that can access Plex, but find that I rarely consume video on these
  • Surround receiver in living room, that supports AirPlay

Starting to slowly work my way through a largish CD collection(>500), ripping these using dbPowerAmp. So far, to FLAC.

 

Have no multi-room streaming solutions in place, but if I were ever to go down that road, I'd probably go for Sonos (realize that FLAC is not supported by Sonos, but ALAC is and converting would be a task that could be overcome)

 

The question is, given the consumption devices listed above and wanting to use lossless format, what would be the best music server solution for unRAID? Have thought about sticking with Plex for this as well, but where Plex is great for video, I am not all that impressed with the music part. And while I have no problems with the Plex app-based approach for video streaming, there might come a time where regular appliances that do not support Plex (like Sonos) could find their way into my house and then I'd be forced to migrate the music part away from Plex.

 

Suggestions on actual serving solution, clients for  as well as media management are welcome.

 

Thanks!

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I don't know what your requirements are but you might want to look into the Popcorn Hour VTEN http://cloudmedia.com/products/popcornhour/vten.

 

It can handle several different codecs, including gapless FLAC. It also supports audio pass-through so your AV receiver handles the audio decoding since most receivers have higher end DACs.

 

And it doesn't actually need server software to be running on your unRAID box. It accesses files with SMB or NFS.

 

It also handles video including 4K and 3D, and while the video player does not need a server either, the VTEN can also run a PLEX client, and there is an app for Android and iPad tablets.

 

There is a forum for users of the various Popcornhour players at http://www.networkedmediatank.com/.

 

There is a wireless dongle available for it as well, but my experiences with it have not been too good. Wireless just doesn't have the capacity for high bit-rate HD video, although audio works fine.

 

They currently show a ship date of May 6th, but I bought mine on Amazon.com. It's a little more expensive there but it ships quicker and Amazon is really good about returns in case you have problems or just don't like it.

 

 

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PhantomII, thanks! However, I am really not looking to add more devices into the household and would really like to solve this using what I have and some extra software.

 

mr-hexen, as I wrote, I am not that fond of how Plex handles music and in the long run it might not play well with appliances that can't run the Plex client. But maybe I am mistaken about that?

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I think plex automatically transcodes to lossy mp3 format doesn't it? Not really good if you have all your audio in flac (lossless) format and you don't want it downsampled.  Also I don't think plex can do gapless playback yet either.  Unfortunately I can't recommend anything as I do all my audio streaming from my synology nas via minimserver and have never tried with unraid.

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As with video, Plex excels at audio sharing and remote streaming. That's the main reason I use it. If you only want an in home music system just use SMB and your favorite audio program (Foobar2000!). The tagging functionality has made great progress in the past year, but fortunately you can instruct Plex to preferably use your embedded tags. My entire collection is in FLAC. Lossless playback happens automatically if the client supports it. Gapless playback is, unfortunately, not well supported. A few clients seem to do well enough, but not all.

 

The main weakness of using Plex as an audio server is that it was developed for video. Plex has limitations that a pure audio server doesn't have. If music is your passion, you may find those limitations too much to overcome and in that case you'll be better off using Subsonic, Ampache or similar. On the other hand, if you just want something that plays music whenever and wherever you are, Plex is a fine choice.

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I use the daapd docker to run an "iTunes" music server on my unRaid box.

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=44210.0

 

I can control it by using my iPhone (Remote App) and it will play to multiple Airplay receivers and keep them all in sync so I have whole house audio.

 

I use a Shairport app on my Windows computer to make it an Airplay receiver.

I use Shairport running on 2 Raspberry Pi devices connected to powered speakers to make them Airplay receivers.

My Yamaha Receiver in my family room has Airplay functionality.

And I have Apple TV devices connected to a couple TVs in the house.

I have 8 total zones that I can stream music to.

 

I can play music to any or all of the devices at the same time, with all the zones in sync and the ability to control each volume level independently or simultaneously, all from my iPhone or iPad.

And I don't have to keep the iPhone connected, it just interfaces to control what is playing when I want to change something (i.e. skip a song).

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TUMS: Plex is set to transcode automatically, yes. It would seem that with some tinkering with how audio device is set (pick ALSA instead of Automatic), this can be disabled. However, it seems erratic, as changing settings back to Automatic does not enable transcoding again. Which to me suggests there's more to it than just a setting. Also, using Plex doesn't fix the long term consideration about being able to use music collection with something else than Plex :-/

 

reggierat: Thanks - I am very satisfied with Plex for video and not looking to move away from that. So using Emby would mean running a full-blown video/audio server just to use the music part, which would be kind of silly, I think.

 

razmajazz: As TUMS stated, there seems to be an issue with lossless playback. So far I've been able to dig out that anything but streaming to Plex Media Theater on Windows, will be transcoded to lossy. I feel confident that the iDevices around the house are pretty capable of playing FLAC, the LAN bandwidth is available, so don't need transcoding.

 

jevans 04: I have looked at the daapd docker and read the support thread, which seemed to indicate that some people were having issues with getting it to run properly. However, this probably comes the closest to what I am looking for, so I'll give it a shot!

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Plex is pretty rubbish for music.  Unless you have PlexPass, which unlocks all the good music features. 

 

I never used Plex for music before I got PlexPass, because it just didn't work.  Once I got PlexPass, we haven't looked back - it does a great job of presenting my poorly organised music, and using the Plex app on mobile devices works like a charm.

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